The present invention relates to surgical instrument systems for performing knee surgery in general, and more particularly to instrument systems for making the necessary distal femoral resections.
Replacement knee surgery has become increasingly common over the last several years, leading to the development of increasingly sophisticated instruments for making the required resections of the femur and tibia. There are three basic resections of the distal femur that must be made: the distal femoral condyles; the anterior femoral condyles; and the posterior femoral condyles. These resections must be made accurately to ensure that the femoral component of the knee prosthesis will fit securely onto the femur.
Prior art knee instrumentation systems often require surgeons to make several cuts in order to make the same resection of the distal femur. Repeated cuts are necessary because the prior art instruments require that an initial cut be made in order to determine the proper alignment, corresponding depth of related cuts, and the size of the appropriate femoral prosthesis. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,350 to Dunn et al. describes a set of instruments for shaping distal femoral surfaces in which a second cut of the anterior femoral condyle is required to create the proper angle for receiving the femoral component, and the size of the femoral component is not determined until after the anterior and distal femur have been resected.